


Nineteen Years

by lunajimin



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-25 07:48:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16657123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunajimin/pseuds/lunajimin
Summary: In which two soulmates finally meet after nineteen years- kind of. The Universe, impressed but irritated with how well they accidentally avoid each other, finally takes drastic measures to ensure their happily ever after.





	Nineteen Years

I jolt up and out of my nightmare, a scream stuck in my throat. Almost immediately, though, a sense of calm and slight worry comes over me. Still breathing heavily from my nightmare, I realize someone is with me, but somehow not in the room. They’re in my head. “H-hello?” I call out in my mind. “Are you okay?” responds a soothing and deep, yet somewhat childish voice. “Yeah, I think so,” I answer, still not fully processing the situation due to my still being half-asleep. “Good,” the voice replies. “I was worried.” I hum in response, still not fully grasping the situation. Reaching for my bottle of water sitting on the bedside table, I rub the sleep out of my eyes before pausing mid-reach as it hits me- there is a voice in my head. “Who ARE you?” I ask urgently, suddenly alert. “And why are you in my head?” The voice chuckles before responding.

   

“I’m Yukhei, a-”

 

The voice- Yukhei- abruptly stops talking, right as a warm feeling spreads through my body from my heart, threatening to drown me.

 

“I’m Jungwoo,” I whisper to him, my voice shaking slightly.

 

The second I utter my name, the feeling doubles, and I feel the sudden urge to cry.

 

“We’re soulmates,” he says, barely audible

 

“We’re soulmates,” I repeat at the same volume.

 

“Finally, after so long…” the tears that had been threatening to fall finally do. “Oh, don’t cry,” Yukhei whispers, but I can feel him crying, too.

 

After a few moments of silence, I say, “I just… everyone has a link and I just… didn’t. I thought I didn’t have a soulmate, and now-”

“Now, we have something better than them,” Yukhei finishes for me.

 

I smile to myself, pulling my blankets up to my face. “I mean…” Yukhei continues, “being able to talk to you through our minds, feel your emotions, it’s worth waiting 19 years instead of 5 or 10. You’re worth waiting longer, Jungwoo. I may not know you yet, but I do know that.” “You too,” I respond meekly. A few minutes pass by before I notice the time. “I have to get back to sleep, it’s 4 AM,” I mutter, although I’m not that tired anymore. “Oh,” Yukhei deadpans. “It’s 4 AM.” I chuckle and tell him, “Go to sleep. We can talk tomorrow.” “Okay,” he says dejectedly. “Sleep well, love.” My face heats up. “You- Yukhei, we met not even FIVE minutes ago!” I exclaim, flustered. “We’re soulmates, though,” he points out. “Touche,” I respond. “Goodnight.”

 

“Love you,” Yukhei tells me shyly.

After a moment’s hesitation, I  mutter “Love you, too,”

 

At that, I fall asleep.

 

The Next Morning

 

I wake up around 10 AM, roughly six hours after my discovery of my soulmate.

 

Wait…

 

I HAVE A SOULMATE

 

   I hear a chuckle in the back of my head. “Morning, my prince,” Yukhei says tauntingly. I blush, not knowing how to respond. After a few minutes of silence, I ask, “Is it weird that I feel like I’ve known you forever?” “I mean- kind of, but isn’t that normal with soulmates? Especially with us, since we’re literally in each other’s heads? Either way, I feel that way, too,” Yukhei responds. I suddenly break out in a grin, unable to contain the joy I feel. “I have a soulmate!” I exclaim aloud, getting out of bed and all but dancing through my house. All the way, I can feel Yukhei’s own happiness fueling mine.

 

   “You WHAT?!” my mother screams, running from the kitchen to where I am in the hall. “I have a soulmate,” I repeat, practically jumping for joy. “How? Who? When?” my mom questions. “His name is Yukhei,” I begin, retelling the story of the night before, When I’m done, my mother is sobbing. Out of joy, of course. “Oh, one more thing,” I add. “Yes?” my mom asks. “He says hi and to stop crying. Well, we both say to stop cr-” my mom cuts me off, throwing herself at me for a hug. She pulls back quickly and I swear I have never seen someone stop crying so fast. “I love him already,” my mom says, beaming, then she runs back to the kitchen. “She seems… enthusiastic,” Yukhei laughs. “Well, she should be,” I reply. “I’m 19, I should have had a soulmate years ago.” “Same here,” Yukhei chuckles. “And here we are.”

 

   “Jungwoo, honey, don’t you have schoolwork due tomorrow?” my mom calls out. Right as I’m about to tell her I finished it, she yells, “Oh, who am I kidding? You have a soulmate, go tell your friends and spend time with him!” “Yes ma’am,” I reply, smiling. I quickly get ready, then grab my bag, heading out of the door of our apartment. I jog to the elevator, then change my mind- the stairs would be faster. I run up the three flights of stairs between the 2nd and 5th floors of the apartment building, stopping to catch my breath before entering the 5th floor. “Someone’s excited. Who are you visiting?” Yukhei inquires. “My friends Taeyong and Ten,” I tell him. “They live together. We’re like, best friends. I have to tell them about you.” “Ten is a fun name,” Yukhei notes. “It’s his nickname,” I explain briefly. “His name is ten letters long, so. Ten.” Yukhei hums in understanding. I quickly exit the stairwell and knock on the pair’s door loudly. Taeyong answers the door, clearly still half-asleep. “Jungwoo, wh-” “I have a soulmate,” I interrupt him. “YOU WHAT?!” Ten and Taeyong exclaim, Ten suddenly standing from where he had been sitting on the couch. He runs over, dragging me inside. “Explain,” he says.

 

And I do.

 

   After I finish explaining, there’s a moment of silence before Taeyong says, “That’s cool. Where are we eating lunch?” I laugh. “What about our cafe?” Ten suggests, still freaking out over Yukhei and I. Taeyong and I agree. “Our cafe” is not actually our cafe, however, we go often enough to be on a first-name basis with like all of the employees, hence the nickname. We soon leave for the cafe, Yukhei still laughing at Ten’s reactions during my- our- story.

 

**_~~~~~_ **

 

   The next two days after I met Yukhei were fairly normal, besides the obvious change: Yukhei. Classes were boring- normal for college. My friends acted somewhat the same, besides the small amounts of expected teasing from the pair. However, Wednesday- three days after Yukhei had appeared in my head- things were different.

 

**_Wednesday_ **

 

   At 6:30 AM, my alarm goes off. Muttering obscenities under my breath, I reach over and turn it off. I stumble through my morning routine, half-awake, all the while trying to wake Yukhei up. After about half an hour, right as I leave my apartment, I feel him wake up. “Morning, my prince,” I say smugly. He laughs in response. We have a small conversation before I reach the school. “I have to go to class now,” I tell him. “I’ll talk later, I promise.” Yukhei sighs. “Okay,” he reluctantly agrees. I walk into the classroom, sitting in my usual seat next to Ten, and join his and Taeyong’s conversation. We talk for a few minutes before class begins.

 

**_~~~~~_ **

 

   At the end of class, I start packing my books, when I realize the room has gone eerily silent. Looking up from my bag, I see the teacher frozen mid-sentence, pointing at a reminder on the board. I glance around, seeing my classmates also frozen in place- some even mid-blink. “What the hell?” I think. I wave my hand in front of Ten’s face- nothing. I poke Taeyong’s shoulder- still nothing. “Time can’t be frozen, can it?” I wonder. “I think it is,” Yukhei replies, his voice as surprised as I feel. “This is weird. What’s weirder is, if time is frozen, why aren't we?” I ask. “I don’t know,” my soulmate replies. I sigh, standing up from my seat- just as someone else walks by the room. I gasp, running to the door. “What if it’s Yukhei?” is all I can think. I slam the door open, yelling “Hey!” at the person who just walked by. He turns around, and I’m faced with a boy who I don’t recognize- but the feeling I get at the sight of him tells me I know exactly who he is. “Yukhei,” I breathe out at the same time he whispers, “Jungwoo.” The feeling I have multiplies and, suddenly, we’re running at each other. We collide into an embrace and, the second we touch, time resumes. Doors slam open, chatter fills the halls, and I hear Ten and Taeyong calling my name.

 

But I don’t seem to care.

 

   All I care about is the boy in my arms- Yukhei- my soulmate. I don’t even realize that I’m crying until Yukhei mutters, “Don’t cry, love,” into my hair. But he’s crying, too. Slowly and reluctantly, I extract myself from his embrace, wiping my eyes in the process. “It’s really you,” I whisper, staring at him. “Yeah,” he whispers back. “It’s really me.”

 

   “Aww, aren’t they cute?” I hear Ten exclaim from behind me. “It reminds me of when we first met!” “Yeah, sure, whatever you think, babe,” Taeyong replies sarcastically. I turn around and, sure enough, I see the couple standing behind us, side by side, Taeyong’s arm wrapped around Ten’s waist as always. I smile. “Ten, Taeyong, this is Yukhei, my soulmate. Yukhei, these are my best friends, Ten and Taeyong. They’re soulmates, too,” I introduce the three, intertwining my hand with Yukhei’s. “So, where are we going for lunch?” Taeyong asks, changing the subject. “Our cafe?” I suggest.

 

“It’s a date,” he responds.

 

**_~~~~~_ **

 

  After we ate at our cafe, Ten suggested that we study for our upcoming exams. Yukhei and Taeyong protested, although only briefly; Yukhei quickly changed his mind (courtesy of me). Without Yukhei’s support, Taeyong quickly gave in to his soulmate, so we made our way back to their apartment to study.

 

**_Two Hours Later_ **

 

 “Oh my god,” Taeyong exclaims, “we forgot snacks.” Yukhei sighs. After quickly checking the kitchen, Ten says, “Looks like we're going to the store, then. We're out, and God knows Tae can’t study without food. Plus, the store is only a ten-minute walk away.” The couple soon leaves. As soon as the door closes, a silence falls over the room. Neither Yukhei nor I attempt to speak at all. Even our minds are silent. It's strange, seeing as we have hardly stopped talking since we met, yet for some reason, a pin dropping would sound like a bomb at the current moment in time. Yukhei is on his phone but glances up after maybe ten minutes. “Why have you been staring at me for the past ten minutes?” he asks a smirk dancing on his lips. “Am I not allowed to look at my soulmate?” I ask, a similar smile on my face. He doesn't respond, instead shifting closer to my spot on the floor from his, close enough that our knees are touching, and leans in ever so slightly.

 

Within half a second, there is a sudden tension in the air. As Yukhei leans in, I catch magical glimpses of his entrancing face. His eyes, a deep brown with black and gold flecks only visible from this close to him, speak to me like only he can. They pull me in as we search each other’s eyes and whisper to my soul. “Kiss him,” they chant, “kiss him.” Suddenly, not able to ignore the drowning feeling in my chest, I push myself towards him, falling into his arms. As his lips meet mine, it can only be described as pure love. His soft lips are everything I’ve ever dreamed of. We pull apart eventually, right after Ten and Taeyong enter the apartment.

 

“That’s gay,” Taeyong says. Ten rolls his eyes. “Okay babe, whatever you think,” he replies, smiling. “That’s _really_ gay,” I whisper, smirking. They kiss, and Yukhei whispers “That’s _even gayer_.”

 

And so, the two were finally, after nineteen years, granted their happily ever after- much to the relief of the Universe.

**Author's Note:**

> I suck at summaries but I hope the gay makes up for it. Also, I didn't write the kiss scene, my friend did so. Thanks.


End file.
